Knight Is Criticized Over Rape Remark

By MALCOLM MORAN

Published: April 27, 1988

Bob Knight's analogy between handling stress and being raped, expressed during a documentary on national television Monday night, drew strong criticism yesterday from the president of Indiana University and from the university women's affairs office.

Asked by Connie Chung, the NBC News correspondent conducting the interview, how he handled stress, the Indiana men's basketball coach said, ''I think that if rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it.''

Then, apparently realizing what he had said might be offensive, Knight went on: ''That's just an old term that you're going to use. The plane's down, so you have no control over it. I'm not talking about that, about the act of rape. Don't misinterpret me there. But what I'm talking about is, something happens to you, so you have to handle it - now.''

Reached by telephone in his office in Bloomington, Ind., yesterday, the university president, Thomas Ehrlich, said:

''Coach Knight was not speaking for the university. His reference to rape and his coarse language were in very poor taste. Period. That's all I really want to say.''

Ehrlich said that he had not scheduled a meeting with Knight, but would not say whether he planned to schedule one.

A secretary in Knight's office said he was traveling and unavailable. Remark Is Called 'Dismaying'

The dean for women's affairs, Phyllis Klotman, could not be reached because of a family emergency, but her office had received 12 to 15 phone calls on the matter yesterday, according to a secretary there, Laura Crain.

''Coach Knight's stature as a role model and as an educator make it particularly dismaying,'' said Trisha Bracken, assistant to Klotman. ''People who don't normally pay attention to sexist remarks are astounded. It's something you expect your grandfather to say. That a man with Coach Knight's education would say that is shocking.''

NBC had received 25 to 30 calls complaining about Knight's remarks by midafternoon yesterday, according to Kevin Monaghan, a spokesman for the network.

Ehrlich, who succeeded John Ryan as president on Aug. 1, criticized Knight last November after the coach, following a dispute with an official, pulled his team off the court with 15 minutes remaining in an exhibition game between Indiana and a national team from the Soviet Union.

A statement issued at the time through the sports information director, and attributed to the university, said Knight's action had caused ''great embarrassment not only to himself and the basketball program, but also, and most importantly, to the entire university and its supporters.''

Bracken said an official response from the women's affairs office would have to wait until the return of Klotman, but that the office was preparing a letter to the president. She said there was hope that the controversy could be used as an educational tool.

Just as advocates of minority hiring made use of the remarks on race made by Al Campanis, the former vice president for player personnel of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Bracken said she hoped that the controversy resulting from Knight's comments would lead to further discussion of safety for women.